Calling all college types

[vvvexation]

This is for a school project, so answers are greatly appreciated. (I know it's not terribly scientific, but I'm making the best of a poorly parametrized assignment.)

Poll Academic Assistance

(Signal-boosting is also appreciated; the more answers I can get, the better.)

Comments

[kaberett]

My university provides supervisions (i.e. teaching by an expert in groups of 2-3) for everyone on all courses - do you count this as "outside help"?

[vvvexation]

Hmmm. Let's go with "yes."

[klrmn]

in one class i took at tel aviv u, i asked for help...all i got was 'here are the original english versions of the articles that were assigned'.

if they were english translations of an article originally in hebrew, that might have counted as help. as it was it was no help.

[shweta_narayan]

er, does "working on a dissertation" = college student, or not? :)

[shweta_narayan]

Not that my answers are likely to be helpful. I did get outside help... once, which led to the memorable line "There were two categories of people in the last homework assignment. Those who talked to Michael Ellsworth, and those who got it wrong." It was a bit (lot) too arcane to really have any relevance to a tutoring program though.

[vvvexation]

Let's call you a former student. It doesn't make much difference in terms of the other questions--the last question is the most important one, really.

[pielology]

Are you talking mostly about formal arrangements with previously-unknown-to-you 3rd-party experts?

It was the norm at my alma mater for lowerclasspersons to sort of casually pester passing upperclasspersons for help. When there was a particularly hard problem set due this would sometimes coalesce into a sort of informal recitation section in the dorm lounge. Incredibly helpful. Because of this, I never bothered to use the tutoring service my school offered.

[vvvexation]

I guess I'd say that counts.

[flwyd]

I took an algorithms class with way-too-easy homework assignments. The teacher had a program where students currently taking the class could volunteer as a tutor to other students in the class. For tutoring three students, I was allowed to skip a homework assignment.

The fact that you could resubmit an assignment ad nauseam with essentially no deadline and that you could use your textbook during tests made me wonder how anyone in the class possibly got a bad grade, but apparently several managed it.

[shweta_narayan]

Somehow, somehow, they always do.

I TAed a couple classes with take-home exams and as much TA help as you wanted, and they still managed.